The Mistress
by CannibaLilly
Summary: The Doctor travels alone. He's lost far too many human-companions to get himself to take another one with him. So what if all of a sudden a Time Lady appeared – suffering from amnesia? And the Doctor keeps her- without knowing that her true self once had been the most ill-spirited Time Lord of all time?
1. Old friends…?

_Summary: The Doctor travels alone. He's lost far too many human-companions to get himself to take another one with him. So what if all of a sudden a Time Lady appeared – suffering from amnesia? And the Doctor keeps her- without knowing that her true self once had been the most ill-spirited Time Lord of all time?  
Disclaimer: I don't own Doctor Who – I own most of the daft humour in this though ;)  
Characters: 10 missing Donna, 10/fem!Master, Jack/everyone ;D  
Spoiler: For everyone who hasn't completed S4, yet  
Warning: Is it still MxM when one of them has become a woman? :) I don't think so, but just if you dislike the thought, better turn away. Non-native author  
Set: in an AU in which the Master didn't die after 'Last of the Time Lords'. Takes place right after JE  
Rating: PG-13 (more? Very likely)  
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Psychological  
A/N: Sorry for the long inactiveness with FFs, writer's block & stuff kept nagging me, wish me luck that I'm over it ;)_

******Chapter 1: Old friends…?**

It was this odd silence the Doctor would never get used to. The short time without any sound between the TARDIS materializing and him scooting out of the door into his next adventure. He'd never seen how important someone's voice was that asked _"sooo, where've you brought me to, this time?"_  
Wavering the Doctor drummed his palms onto the control panel in front of him. How long since he travelled alone now? A week, more, less? He had no clue, but he didn't see how he should deal with this over years… for the rest of his life.  
No! This was the wrong time to get melancholic; he'd made his decision and it was for the best. Better he had to deal with this silence than the pain of losing someone else… right?  
He knew that if he wouldn't go out now then he'd never and just end up vrowping through the vortex again – in silence… so he pushed himself away from the control panel and out of the door. Next adventure, here he came.

Instantly the Doctor had to shield his eyes from the sunlight; somehow he'd expected the weather to attach to his current mood but what he saw was Cardiff on a perfect midsummer eve. The Time Lord sighed, everywhere happy people walking and chatting and laughing got him annoyed, more than it should have.  
All grumpy he wandered through the city. He shouldn't have come here, he had no reason anyway. He should be somewhere outta space, a planet about to collapse, a nation on the edge of destruction, somewhere he was needed, at least to distract his mind.  
He was just about to turn back to the TARDIS as he heard it, paralyzed.  
"Impossible" he mumbled and slowly turned towards the direction the noise had come from. What he'd believed to hear was the sound of a TARDIS… a similar type to his just a lot more silent _"not with the breaks on"_ he thought, so it likely wasn't just him accidentally crossing his own timeline.  
He started running, sure that this was just his mind playing tricks on him. He was lonely and slowly this affected his sanity – or what was left of it anyway. Panting the Doctor came to stop at an abandoned crossroad; far and wide nothing but skyscrapers.  
A loud shot cut through the silence and made both of his hearts skip a beat. Alarmed he scanned his surroundings. A street at the frontier of Cardiff, not too clean and deserted so where did this shot came from?

"Hello?!" he called out of mere panic, an appearing TARDIS and a shot, this couldn't mean any good.  
The next thing he heard twisted his stomach, it was a most unpleasant splashing sound, the kind of splashing sound a living creature made while hitting the ground hard.  
"No!" the Doctor turned around to a couple of smaller houses in slow motion. He moved toward the buildings with their 5-6 floors like through a nightmare. He'd wake up, of that he was sure. Any minute the TARDIS would make an odd sound and he'd yank out of this.  
Just like life wanted to prove him right a sudden yellow light appeared from between two of the houses; that was a typical Time Lordy-yellow, this couldn't be anything but a dream – for sure. The Doctor quickened his pace until he was running, this yellow light looked so familiar, he'd seen it 9 times now; always when he'd died and woke up as someone else again.  
As soon as the Doctor had reached the alleyway he realized, he was awake.  
He was looking at a brightly glowing body which doubtlessly was a Time Lord and he was just regenerating. Gaping the Doctor stood there until the glowing faded away and revealed her.  
She looked about his age, impossibly much older, and wore a blue boiler suit. Dark, straight but fringy hair hung in her face and on the asphalt of the street. The Doctor gulped and looked up at the houses bordering the alley they were in. This sound of a shot… if she'd fallen down from one of these after someone shot her it was no wonder that she had regenerated.

"Doctor?" The Doctor spun around.  
"Jack?!" he wondered as he saw the man standing in front of him; his weapon ready to shoot.  
"Thanks god, you're ok! I-I heard this sound of something like a TARDIS and then I saw the regeneration glow and… glad you're ok."  
The Doctor just nodded, what was happening here?  
"How long has it been to you? Saying good bye to Donna, I mean..." Jack asked to dissolve the silence.  
"Some… months" he lied and Jack nodded shortly.  
"Same with me. 4 months I think… But hey! Why are we standing here, chatting while there's a Time Lord lying there!?"  
He was right! The Doctor turned back and both men rushed up to the young woman who still lay unconscious on the street.  
"Do you know her?" Jack questioned the Doctor.  
"No, at least I'm not sure…" he replied, crouched down beneath the woman. "She just regenerated and it seemed it was a big one… if I knew her former self I don't recognize her right now."  
"A big one?" Jack wondered and the Doctor nodded moony, busy with searching through his coat for the screwdriver.  
"A huge change I mean. Serious, or let's say 'damaging' injuries require bigger regenerations. They alter appearance, psyche and other characteristic a lot; sometimes enough so even Time Lords don't recognize each other again."  
Jack went on; talking about it being a shame the Doctor forgot such a "cute little Time Lord".  
"Time Lady", he corrected while he was scanning the woman head to toe "a female Time Lord's mostly called 'Time Lady'… That's bad."  
"Huh?" Jack seemed to have recognized the worry in the Doctor's tone and kneeled down to the hurt Time Lady too.  
"Barely any vital signs… if she had been shot first and fell down afterwards, it's possible she got seriously hurt during her regeneration."  
"She could die?!" Jack asked shocked. In answer, the Doctor instantly he lifted the woman's limb body up. She was cold; far too cold for a freshly-regenerated Time Lord, she still should be cooking.  
"I will take her to the TARDIS" the Doctor explained, turning to go.  
"I'll come along", Jack decided.  
"No, go to the roof of these buildings" the Doctor replied.  
"But…!"  
"Both of us heard a TARDIS materialize, maybe it's still up there. I need to take care of her, just catch up with me when you've found what's up there."  
With these words both men separated.

Jack arrived on the rooftop of the second building. The first one had been empty. No TARDIS, no other living creature, nothing that showed what had just happened, so either on this one or nowhere. It didn't take Jack more than some seconds to be sure: no TARDIS in sight.  
It also didn't take a genius to see that no person was there either, nor was there some kind of weapon or any allusion to what had just happened. Just a second rooftop; some gravel, some garbage, no hint anywhere close.  
Disappointed Jack crossed his arms in front of his chest. This wouldn't please the Doctor at all. He'd really hoped he could go back with good news for the lonely alien – no matter he didn't admit it, it was more than obvious how hard the past happenings had hit him. Months since it happened to him? He looked like it had been hours and he seemed to be alone; this wasn't much like him at all and certainly not good for him anyway.  
Knowing he couldn't find anything that simply wasn't there, Jack left. He walked down the street and searched for the familiar blue box, oblivious to the beautiful sight the burning red sun offered while setting behind him.

"Doctor?" he called into the enormous ship as soon as he'd found it.  
"Where are you?" He didn't receive an answer, but the soft humming of the TARDIS itself leaded him down some corridors right to the medical bay. Jack heard frantic footsteps from inside and gadgets being found, used and thrown aside.  
"How is she?" Jack asked, closing the door to the bay behind him.  
"Not too well" the Doctor replied quickly but with true sorrow in his eyes.  
"What've you found?"  
"I tell you later, ok? Just get this done", Jack offered but the Doctor, who just shook some kind of thin metal pipe, answered: "no, tell me now. I'm working better when I've many tasks at once." A deep green glow from within the pipe seemed to satisfy the Doctor. Jack knew he was right, so he shortly told him what he'd found: nothing.

"Are you sure?" the Doctor mumbled, hovering the glowing pipe over the woman's chest.  
"Yeah… Sorry", Jack said, but got no answer. The Doctor just straightened up, giving the woman on the bed a grievous look.  
"She's dead" he breathed out.  
"No…" Jack exclaimed. This couldn't happen; not now! Not while the Doctor needed someone like another Time Lord or Lady that much.  
"No pulse, no reaction to any tests… dead." The Doctor sat back on a chair, looking like any power had left him.  
"No!" Jack said, louder this time."Don't give up just now! Keep trying, give her some alien drug, poke her with your sonic-something! Do anything!"  
"She's dead!" the Doctor bit back but Jack wouldn't give up on this. It wasn't only that this woman was far too young to die, the Doctor was also far too himself to do nothing about it.  
"People can be brought back!" Jack received just a tired look from the Doctor and it scared him to see he'd given up; not only on the woman on the bed but also on himself.

"Fine, sit there and be useless!" the captain spat out and walked over to the Time Lady.  
"So Miss, you will now be rescued _properly_." He threw a glare over at the Doctor and then began to pump his hands on the woman's chest like he'd learned. Then he breathed in and tried to give her lungs some oxygen. Then back to the pumping.  
"Two hearts" the Doctor reminded him lowly and Jack instantly started pumping the other side too. The anger about the Doctor playing the useless one and the fear how much he'd changed encouraged him further. Later on Jack knew it had been silly, but somehow he'd known that if he would just be able to safe this other Time Lord, then this would somehow safe the Doctor.  
He breathed in and brought his lips to the woman's mouth. He breathed out, hoping some of his life, of this immortality, would reach her. Finally he straightened up again, looking down on the motionless Time Lady and an equally motionless Time Lord who looked at him with this _see, I told you_-look.  
Jack was just about to rant at the Doctor just for being so damn despaired when a low coughing drew both men's attention away from each other.  
The woman sat up, slowly, looking like she'd issues with keeping balance. Jack made a quick step over to her in case she'd fall, but before he'd reached her, she lazily turned around to the Doctor who still sat in his chair, gaping.  
"Have we got any eggs left? Cause I'd die for some pancakes right now" the woman mumbled and before any of them could make head or tail of it, she sank back onto the bed, but this time she kept breathing while she slept.

"So?!" Jack asked impatiently. Since some minutes (which felt like hours to him) he kept pacing the med-bay and threw short glances either at his feet or the Doctor.  
"She's alive" the Time Lord finally commented and pulled some gadget out of his ears that looked a lot like a stethoscope to Jack, despite the fact that it had two head chest pieces.  
"Respiration is normal and so is her pulse. Her body temperature has risen to 40 by now, but that's more than normal considering she's freshly regenerated."  
"She'll survive?" Jack wanted to make absolutely sure, but already a wide smile had crawled up onto his face.  
"…Yeah", the Doctor assured and Jack made a rejoicing sound followed by a giddy clap of his hands.  
"Great, that's brilliant! Doctor why do you keep looking like someone's eaten the last banana then?" Jack was right, the Doctor looked just like he simply couldn't believe it – not in the good way though, more like it was quite simply not true. He gave Jack a clouded shrug and when he looked up into his eyes he seemed to lack any kind of emotion.  
"No, I'm fine. Good job, you've certainly saved her. We-ll, let's give her some time to recover in here." Then the Doctor simply walked past Jack and left the med-bay behind.  
"Where're you going?" the captain called after him, but the Doctor was quickly walking away.  
"Hey!" Jack reluctantly left the woman back, but she was safe in here and according to the Doctor they could do nothing else but wait – this gave Jack some time to look after his problem-Time Lord.

He found him in the kitchen, obviously trying to cook some tea.  
"Ok, what's wrong with you?" Jack did his best to sound calm while he was leaning with his shoulder in the kitchen-door. A look told him that both of them well knew he'd chosen this position to make another escape as hard as possible for the Doctor.  
"Nothing's wrong. I'm alright; always am."  
"Yeah, I know this kind of 'alright' you are. It's that kind where you do something really stupid…"  
"I'm not doing anything stupid", the Doctor said calmly and poured steaming water into two cups.  
"Yes, you do. Last time you nearly drowned yourself together with a giant spider – yeah, Donna told me!" Jack replied when the Doctor looked up at his words like he'd reminded him of something most unpleasant; just mentioning Donna's name caused this reaction.  
"She wouldn't want you to give up", Jack tried with a gentle voice, but the Doctor seemed to have enough of this. He made some fast steps over to the door and tried to get out, growing angrier and angrier since Jack blocked this way.  
"I tell you what she wouldn't have wanted" the Doctor ranted "that I leave her back after erasing her memory."  
He locked eyes with Jack who slowly got the feeling all this was waiting inside of the Doctor to sputter out ever since.  
"I'm sick of it, Jack. Don't worry I won't go and get myself killed, but don't expect me to carol because of a small triumph like that" and while he squeezed his way past Jack the captain hear him mumble "better off alone…"  
"You just found another Time Lord… not such a small triumph if you ask me", Jack remarked and slowly turned around. Just when the Doctor opened his mouth for an answer an excited buzzing appeared around them – it sounded like the TARDIS had some big news for them.  
"What…?" Jack started but interrupted himself when he saw the look on the Doctor's face; now he couldn't pretend he didn't care about the Time Lady on board.  
"Looks like she's woken up."  
"Already?!" Jack wondered out loud and scooted after the Doctor who'd started running over to the med-bay.  
"Yeah, she's had some healing sleep, useful thing this is", the Doctor called over his shoulder and even smiled shortly.

The two of them stopped in front of the door to the medical-bay.  
"So, ready to meet her?" Jack asked cheeky and eyed the Doctor who suddenly appeared to be nervous.  
"Yes sure, uhm, why not?"  
"No, it just has been some time since you met a Time Lady, hasn't it?"  
"Not this long… ok, yes. But it's nothing that'd need practice." The Doctor seemed sure about this, but he still didn't make any attempts to enter the med-bay.  
"Ok, well then, after you, please." Jack pointed at the white door. Slightly hesitant the Doctor placed his hand on the handle.  
He stopped and looked strictly at Jack "I didn't change my opinion. I'll make sure she's ok and then it's good-bye to her."  
"If you say so", Jack smiled – somehow he couldn't get rid of the faith the Doctor would change his mind. He wasn't a man to abandon someone who was lonely; especially when she was as lonely as he was.  
Carefully the Time Lord pushed the door open and Jack entered the room after him.


	2. An empty piece of the Galaxy

**Chapter 2: An empty piece of the Galaxy**

The Doctor hadn't expected her to sit there. Of course he wasn't sure what exactly he'd expected, but certainly not that she simply sat there. She looked a little… gone; mentally spoken. Her legs were dangling down from the bed and she sat upright. Her hands on the bed as some kind of prop. Her black hair fell around her face and her dark eyes were focused on some spot of the wall near the door.  
"I… uhm, hello…?" the Doctor stuttered, but the woman either hadn't heard him or ignored him.  
"Hello, I'm the Doctor…" he tried again but once again didn't receive any answer. He turned around to Jack _"what should I do now?"_ lay in his look, but the captain simply shrugged, obviously highly amused.

Petulant the Doctor turned back. She was a Time Lady - his species! He should be able to communicate with her in some way or another. To calm down he ran his hand through his hair.  
"Are you ok? Your injuries were serious, but you can be sure that I can help you, if you just tell me what's wrong."  
Silence. The woman still didn't made any noise but finally she moved. She started chewing her lip.  
"C-can you hear me?" the Doctor began "if you c…"  
"Shhh!" she hushed him and her eyes jumped to his for a brief moment and then back at the wall.  
"I'm thinking."  
The Doctor felt Jack walking over to his side but was too shocked to say something. The moment she'd looked at him he'd been sure. They really had found another Time Lord. Ok, he'd figured this already, but just on a logical basis; when their eyes had met he had felt it.

"Is she really ok?" Jack whispered and brought the Doctor back to reality.  
"M-maybe", he admitted not fully sure.  
"Such a big regeneration can cause some confusion."  
"But no loss of hearing", the woman said calmly and interrupted their whispering. They looked at each other and the Doctor gave her a friendly smile, which he hoped didn't look as askew as it felt.  
"Come a little closer" she suddenly ordered and reached an arm out to the both of them.  
Giving each other a bewildered look the Doctor and Jack approach the Time Lady. Just when they stood in front of her she placed one of her hands softly onto the Doctor's cheek, the other one on Jack's.  
When Doctor doubted she could confuse him anymore than this, the moony expression on her face gave way to a malign one. Obviously with all her power she banged his and Jack's head against each other and while they were busy with a supernova exploding inside of their heads, she jumped up and kicked their legs away. The Doctor only figured this, because in the next second he found himself on the floor of the med-bay; his head and back aching.  
"Ouch" both men growled and when the Doctor opened his eyes, he found himself glaring into the muzzle of a gun. The Time Lady pointed it straight at his head and looked down on him with a look seesawing between pride and anger.

"Uhoh, now the mad one has the gun" she chirped.  
"Where…", the Doctor wondered, but Jack interrupted him and answered his question at the same time. "Hey! My gun!"  
"Shut up!" she snapped and now pointed the weapon at Jack who'd hit the floor next to the Doctor.  
"Now I will be asking the questions, you understand me?" she glared at Jack and back at the Doctor.  
"First of all, where are we?"  
"On my ship", the Doctor explained and she eyed him over.  
"So this is your TARDIS?" she asked and he nodded.  
"Pretty old one… Type 40 isn't it?", she mumbled but didn't waited for an answer.  
"Now, who are you guys?"  
"Captain Jack Harkness", Jack answered and winked at her. The woman frowned.  
"Are you sure it's clever to annoy the…" she hesitated, threw a short glance into the mirror hanging over the basin and went on "girl with the gun pointed at your head?"  
"And you are?" she pointed the weapon back at the Doctor who was well aware of her current feelings. She'd just regenerated and looked at the face she'd to live with now.  
"As I said, I'm the Doctor."  
"'The Doctor'", she echoed and finally shrugged.  
"I wasn't asking for your title, but your name."  
"I'm afraid you'll have to be content with 'the Doctor'", he replied and both locked eyes.  
"Suit yourself", she sighed and leaned back against the bed without lowering the weapon.  
"Now, let's come to the funny part: Who am I?"  
The Doctor knitted his eyebrows but Jack was the first to speak.  
"You don't know?"  
"No, I just took both of you hostage because I wanted to play a nice quiz with you!" she replied sarcastically and repeated her question.  
"So once again: who am I? Better tell me, if you know."  
"Sorry, we don't know", the Doctor looked at her and felt what he said; she must be horribly confused.  
"The accident you had, or maybe your regeneration, must have cause some kind of amnesia… I'm afraid that's everything we know."  
Before the woman could answer Jack asked: "amnesia? If she has no memory then how did she know about the TARDIS?"  
"Retrograde amnesia often just erases information bound to emotion, not the logical knowledge, like what a TARDIS looks like", the Doctor explained.  
"Or how a gun works, something you'll experience if you don't stop asking trivial stuff!" the Time Lady added, glaring at Jack.  
Now that the Doctor looked at her again, she seemed confused and angry, yes, but also scared. She'd just woken up among strangers without knowing her face or her name or anything; just a head full of confusing knowledge.  
"Great" she sighed angrily "kidnapped by a weird couple, lost my memory, can this day get any more annoying?"  
"We didn't kidnap you!" Jack answered back. "And we're no couple!" the Doctor added, his words followed by an _oh, why not this time?-_look by Jack.  
"What ever!", the Time Lady replied and stood up again. Aiming at Jack and back at the Doctor.  
"Get up, both of you – slowly. And keep your hands where I can see them."  
They obeyed. This wasn't good; not at all. The Doctor could only imagine what a Time Lord would do while this confused and scared, especially an armed one.  
"Show me the control panel", the woman poked the gun into the Doctor's back.

-

With their hands up, Jack and the Doctor walked slowly out of the med-bay and into the control room.  
"Sit down at the wall", the woman ordered and Jack and the Doctor sat down. She kneeled down to them and ran her hands into Jack's coat, carefully pointing the gun at the Doctor.  
"Not that I wouldn't appreciate this, but don't you think there would have been an easier way into my coat, ma'am?" Jack teased and earned a punch into the stomach for this comment.  
"Ah!" the woman rejoiced and held up a pair of handcuffs.  
"Not directly my thing, but ok" Jack grinned and the Time Lady threw an angry glare at him. Then she applied the handcuffs to Jack and the to the Doctor's wrist.  
"Nicely bound together" she smiled, an all but childlike joy playing about her face.  
"Now… I need to fix you here. I hate men running around while I'm flying a ship."  
"Where would you want to fly to?" the Doctor asked while the woman had turned around to him and slid her hands now into his coat.  
"Make an educated guess" she mumbled. Delicate fingers started feeling his chest for whatever she was searching, pride helped him to suppress a shudder.  
"I'll just go home, then I'll release you and you can get lost. Ah, there you are, naughty!" Happily she pulled the sonic screwdriver out of one of the Doctor's pockets.  
"Hey!" he protested, but she switched it on and fused the handcuffs to the wall.  
"If you say home…" he began, hoping he was wrong.  
"Gallifrey, of course", she replied and stood up again.  
"I'm sure I can find someone there who can tell me who I am."  
Jack and the Doctor exchanged sad looks.  
"Listen…" he started and sat up as much as the handcuffs allowed him to.  
"Gallifrey is… you can't go home, I am sorry."

She ignored the Doctor and buzzed around the control panel, happily switching levers and pushing buttons. For a moment it knocked him for a loop to see another animate being handling a TARDIS with the same nonchalance as him; it had been so long... Then he remembered why it had been so long.  
"Gallifrey is gone! Destroyed during the Time War… I'm so sorry."  
For a second the woman seemed frozen; then she glared at him and pulled another handle.  
"Nonsense, Gallifrey and gone? Don't make a fool of yourself."  
"I'm serious!" but the Doctor knew this wouldn't convince her – it wouldn't convince him.  
"Lunatic" she hissed and continued her work on the control panel.  
"You have to believe me!" he shouted and jerked his hand against the handcuffs.  
"Doctor", Jack tried to calm him.  
"Let her go there, she'll see you were right and…"  
"No!" he pulled again, but the shackles didn't give in.  
"Listen to me, you don't want to see that!" he shouted at her but she ignored him; her face told him she heard him though.  
"Doctor...?" Jack sounded truly worried.  
"It breaks your hearts", he turned around to the captain and knew he sounded furious.  
"Seeing this piece of the galaxy. The place where your home has been once and suddenly it's all empty – I don't want her to see that."  
But while the Time Lady flew the TARDIS right to where Gallifrey once had been the shackles were mercilessly keeping them in place.

"There we are", by this time she had convinced herself that this man was nothing but a crackpot – just her luck. Obviously she was a luckless person; one could never be sure after a regeneration, but even if she hadn't just formed a new personality and body she wouldn't remember how she had been before.  
"Ladies", she tapped her index finger shortly at her temple and winked at the handcuffed men.  
"This means good-bye."  
"Don't do it." It was the sudden calmness in the man's voice worrying her the most – if he'd kept shouting it would have been easier to tell herself he had lost his mind.  
"Oh, cut it out", she sighed with faked calmness.  
"I'll show you that Gallifrey is right where it should be."  
She walked over to the TARDIS's door. She wasn't used to this body at all; now that she thought about it she wasn't even sure how exactly she looked like. Her short glance in the mirror had shown her a dark-haired young woman. Not too plump, not too skinny, pretty small though (how she'd recognized while the men stood up; she was nearly a head smaller than the shorter one of the two) – how annoying, she really was luckless.

The woman pushed the door open and the blackness of the galaxy coldly welcomed her. She poked her head out of the TARDIS and looked about; left, right, up, down, but it wasn't like one could accidentally overlook a planet.  
"What?!" She got back into the TARDIS and furiously glared at the men on the floor like they were to blame.  
"Where are we?!" she jangled, her voice was shaky.  
"I'm so sorry", the Time Lord said with a look that showed her that the pain in his voice was no fake, but this was no reason for her to believe his nonsense.  
"This daft old ship must have gotten the coordinates wrong!" she ranted and rushed back to the control panel. She scanned the screen for a possible mistake.  
"Don't be silly, you know we are right!"  
Why didn't he simply shut up?!  
"You recognize the surroundings, don't you? We learned the nearest stars by hearts, you know we are here! It's Gallifrey that's go-"  
"_**Shut up!**_" if she hadn't been shaking all over she'd been fascinated how her new voice skipped a hole octave while screaming. Shivering she propped herself with her hands on the control panel. She had to think. Somehow she'd fallen for a trick, what could it be else?  
"It fell victim to the Time War. Daleks and Time Lords, there's only the two of us left."  
The woman turned around and looked at the man's dark eyes. Then she shook her head, not able to believe him nor to refute him. Finally she let go of the panel and rushed away from him and these eyes that told her that the horror he told her about was no lie.

She opened a random door and locked herself into the room. Just after she'd done this she recognized it was a library. Good! This was what she needed. Many books meant much information. One of these should tell her what was going on here; luck was back at her side.  
The Time Lady wiped her hand over her eyes and settled down to work.  
She just sat there for a moment, trying to go through her memory. It was pretty short of course and confusing... She knew that many species and people existed out there, but the only faces she could recall where the faces of the two men. It was like sitting in a dark room and not being able to see more than some inches, though she was aware that there was more, she was just unable to see it properly.

-

She couldn't tell how much time had passed when a knocking interrupted her. She had just found and finished a book called _"Famous wars of the universe – years 100'200 until 300'6"_ when the sudden noise made her wince. Hesitantly she got up and walked over a pile of books to the door she'd carefully locked with a chain.  
"Who's there?" she called through the door and since she didn't want to appear stupid because there were only 3 people on this ship she added: "the handsome or the smart guy?"  
"…Both!" the voice of the Time Lord answered after a moment of hurt hesitation that made her smile. Since her anger had faded away she started to feel guilty. If they really rescued her she'd stolen their ship and left them back in handcuffs.  
Carefully she opened the door until the chain was strained and peeked through the gap. Yup, the dark-eyed Time Lord was there, though his look seemed some brighter by now.  
"Liar", she said "you're the tedious guy."  
"What are you doing?" his voice was kind. Great! Now she really felt guilty.  
"That's a library… I'm reading", she explained and then: "so, you could get out of the handcuffs?"  
"It was easy after Jack remembered he had the keys in his pocket." Both exchanged a smile.  
"Will you open this door?" the Time Lord asked, his tone didn't sound like a request, more like he was just curious if this was a part of her plan or not.  
"I'm not sure", she replied lowly "you were right, but this doesn't mean you're not dangerous."  
"I never said I was not", he replied "but you can trust me."  
The Time Lady frowned.  
"Did you kidnap me?"  
"No"  
"… would you tell me if you would have kidnapped me?"  
"… I'm not sure… depends on the reasons I would have had for kidnapping you."  
She knew it was naive and if he should turn out to be a real kidnapper she would hate herself for this later on, but right now she was grateful for his honesty.

"Where are you travelling to?" she asked, suddenly aware of something.  
"Uhm, nowhere particular. I'm just travelling around, seeing the galaxy... and stuff. Why?"  
Uneasy she fiddled with the door-chain.  
"I was just wondering... could you drop me where you found me? Maybe someone on this planet knows who I am – only place I have a connection to now that... now that it's gone."  
She avoided his look, saying this out loud meant believing it and she still couldn't do this; not fully.  
"Yes, sure", the man assured her and she looked up, beaming.  
"Thanks!" Then she closed the door, took the chain away and got out, puzzled she found that he was waiting for her.  
The Time Lord reached out his hand.  
"My screwdriver."  
She grinned.  
"Ups, right" and dropped the tool she'd still have in her pocket into his hand.  
"Handy thing", she said while they were walking down the corridor, back to the control room.  
"Thanks", he smiled.

"The planet you were on while regenerating's called 'Earth', by the way."  
She frowned and the man seemed surprised.  
"You remember this name?"  
"No...", she replied after some moments of silence.  
"No, I thought I would but it's just a planet among other planets I remember the names of... no images connected to it though."  
"How about Gallifrey?" he seemed hesitant while asking, maybe scared she would cry again, but she went back in her mind and answered truthfully: "Yes. Definitely an image connected to this, but no particular one... I see the landscape but no house I'd call home... I see people, I know their status but not their names; ok Rassilon maybe but... no faces and no personality linked to anyone. One of them could be my own son and I wouldn't remember it."  
"It will return, sooner or later" he placed his hand gently on her arm and she glanced bewilderedly at him.  
"You can't be sure, why do you say that? And what's this touching?" she didn't want to be rude but this was just odd...  
"I... uhm, s-sorry!" he backed-off his eyes wide and apologetic.  
"I tried to comfort you, nothing else!" he excused.  
"Comfort me? With telling me everything'll be fine... that's odd."  
"Right, s-sorry."  
She wasn't angry though, just amused, it was just weird. She walked ahead to the control room.

He wanted to bang his head against the wall; hardly. This had been embarrassing beyond belief. Jack had been right, the Doctor hadn't interacted with female Time Lords for far too long.  
Gallifreyans didn't comfort each other with trying to gloss things over; they rather appoint ways to deal with an uncomfortable situation. And never with touching! Touching was something that just happened accidentally, or if really really close to each other, but never out of politeness. It would have amused the Doctor to see how he'd adapted himself to human-traditions if he didn't had the wish to hole up and die in embarrassment.  
Entering the control room didn't exactly helped to raise the Doctor's mood. Jack was a human, a bloody human! And he apparently had a jaunty chatter with the Time Lady – without embarrassing accidents, he even made her laugh.  
"So", the Doctor announced slightly too loud.  
"Earth, right?"  
"That's what you said", the woman smiled.  
"You'll like it there, my home-planet actually. If you've found someone who knows you, I gotta show you around", Jack suggested and before the Time Lady could accept this offer the Doctor kicked the TARDIS alive and they got shaken around.

-

"You still have the breaks on". While he landed the TARDIS in the same street he'd found her in, the woman had stepped behind him.  
"Thanks, I'm able to fly my ship alone", he replied grumpy.  
"We-ll, doesn't sound like it", she mocked and smiled challenging. He threw an annoyed glance at her and they left the TARDIS.  
"Hmm", she eyed the scenery over.  
"No memory?" Jack asked caring.  
"Uh-uh", the Time Lady shook her head.  
"But I didn't expect it. Anyway, I came here to find someone who knows me and that's what I'll do now. Any idea where I could start such a search?"  
"I'd suggest we start at a police post, maybe someone already started searching for you and-"  
"_We_?" she'd crossed her arms behind her back and looked surprised at the captain.  
"Of course we! We won't leave you alone! We won't, right Doctor?" Jack turned around to the Doctor who'd waited in the entrance of the TARDIS.  
"Uhm", he said _"congratulation! This really sounded like the well-considered answer she'd expect from a Time Lord, well done"_ he scolded himself.  
"I'll be fine, don't worry", the Time Lady refused. "You've certainly better things to do and you already brought me here. More than I could ask form you, after stealing your ship and attacking you." The woman turned around to walk away.  
"Doctor!" Jack called and the Doctor recovered his language.  
"Madam, Jack's right we can't just leave you on your own!" The woman turned around and grinned.  
"'Madam'? Oh, have I regenerated into a granny? I mean, I don't have a clue how old I am, but I bet I'm at least 200 years away from a 'madam'."

Doctor: 0 – Embarrassment: 2. He blushed, fortunately(?) Jack helped out.  
"What should we call you then? Any name you remember?"  
"...no. Actually not."  
"Oh, I think we can find one. Many nice names I know", Jack smiled suggestively at her.  
"And I bet none of them is innocent", the woman replied amused, obviously she slowly got used to Jack's sense of humour.  
"Too bad you can't chose your name yourself – people get their names from other people ever since, except you're the Doctor of course." Jack looked at the Doctor.  
"Any ideas?"  
"I'm not good in giving things names..." The Doctor tried to escape an answer.  
"Liar, you churn made-up-names for things out!"  
"I'm not making them up!" The Doctor objected and their fight was interrupted by the still nameless woman laughing.  
"Maybe we don't need it anyway", she explained amused. "If we find someone who knows me, they'll know my name."  
And in a threesome they made their way to the next police post.


	3. A name for the Lady

**Chapter 3: A name for the Lady**

Sergeant Pinnock leaned back in the uncomfortable hardwood chair. His lunch breaks seemed so very far away and for a moment he deliberated whether he could risk a little nap. He was nearly all alone in the office, only some of the secretaries were around – everyone had left for a big robbery somewhere uptown, just good old Pinnock could wait here and waste his time.  
When the sergeant grumpily decided he really should take a nap, just as some kind of revenge for being cut out, the entrance door opened and three people entered the office. Pinnock eyed them over, somehow they looked... weird.

The man to the left was tall and looked strong (Pinnock doubted he would stand a chance against this bloke, even with his club). Also he wore a black leather coat and the way he walked he appeared... important, but Pinnock didn't knew him from the news or anything.  
The man on the right wore a brown pinstriped suit, was slightly smaller than the left man and appeared less strong. He didn't seem to be less important though.  
Pinnock knew people entering police stations. Usually they were either in a heist because they had some problem or they were nervous because they had to talk to actual police men. These people appeared pretty calm; they walked directly over to sergeant Pinnock without the usual nervous eyeing of the scenery. The tall man even chattered with the woman in between the men.  
The woman seemed even more displaced than the men. She was small, maybe 4'9", Pinnock assumed. She had straight, jet-black hair and dark eyes and seemed to wear only a blue boiler suit. Pinnock would have described her as beautiful if she hadn't chosen just this moment to directly look at him. Pinnock shivered, how could eyes of such a nice brown colour glare this coldly into him?!

"Good day", the man in the suit greeted Pinnock friendly and Pinnock decided that if he had to choose between talking to the beefy man or the cold woman, he'd rather talk to the man in pinstripes. Now he just needed to regain his police-dignity.  
"Good day, sir. May I help you?" he asked with a calm voice.  
"We hope you can", the man answered with a smile and pointed at the cold woman.  
"This Lady wonders if she's been reported missing."  
Pinnock blinked, bewildered.  
"Why would you think anyone reported you missing?" the sergeant glanced at the woman, but the man in the suit answered.  
"Oh, you know that's one of these situations where you go on a short trip and forget to tell your friends and family and in the end the whole country ends up searching for you."  
"Actually I was talking to the Lady", Pinnock replied and eyed the three over again. They didn't look exactly like slave traders and it would be the first case Pinnock had heard of that such people would ask the police if they miss the person they try to sell, but the woman's cloth and her silence rang Pinnock's alarm bells.  
"Do you speak English, Miss?"  
"Perfectly well, thanks. How about you?" Pinnock stared at her, she hadn't made it sound like an insult, more like small talk.  
"I, uhm, well, as you can hear, I do. So please, **Miss**, tell me why someone should report you missing." While addressing the woman he shot a warning glare at the man in the suit, he didn't seem to mind, since he continued his friendly smile.  
"Shouldn't I be allowed to ask if someone's missing me? I just want to make sure they stop missing me", the woman explained like this was the most normal thing to do on a Wednesday morning.  
Pinnock frowned.  
"Uhm, well... fine. Tell me your name please."  
"I don't know my name, sorry. You'll have to do with my appearance."  
Pinnock wanted to ask, he _should_ have asked, but her eyes forbad any other action than just turning to the PC and searching through the data.

Female – height: 4'9'' – age: 20-35 – black hair – brown eyes.

"No one who'd match your appearance is reported missing", Pinnock finally declared and to his surprise the three people seemed disappointed, even the man in the suit stopped smiling.  
"Is there anyone been reported missing during the past 2 month at all?" he asked and once again Pinnock searched through his data – he didn't knew why, but he doubted these people would stop asking until they had their answer.  
"No, the last report of a missing person is 4 months old."  
"Are you sure?" now the big man spoke and though he sounded friendly Pinnock clenched his hand around the mouse.  
"Yes sir, our data of missing people is quite manageable", nearly Pinnock had added _"I'm sorry"_, but why should he apologize that no one had reported her missing?  
For a moment no one said a word until the woman breathed in.  
"Alright. Thank you sir, good bye." She turned around and left the office, the men followed her after a short glance at each other – then sergeant Pinnock was alone again. What on earth had just happened? Pinnock kept glaring at the door until the alarm for his lunch break made him wince.

The three of them left the police office and walked down the street in silence. The Doctor had brought them back to Cardiff, just one month after they had found the Time Lady.  
_"To make sure your friends really got in touch with the police"_, the Doctor had explained, but no one seemed to have missed her. Jack glanced at the woman and she turned around to him and the Doctor.  
"What do I do now?" she asked and looked more than a little lost in the middle of a street in Cardiff with nothing else than this boiler suit that was at least 3 sizes too tall for her.  
"We could go back to the police", the Doctor answered and Jack gave him an unhappy look.  
"They can help people who lost their memory."  
Jack opened his mouth to object but the Doctor added: "or... well, you could stay with us."  
"Honestly?" the woman asked with wide eyes.  
"Sure, I don't like the imagination of a Time Lady alone on earth anyway... with all its linear progress of time, that'd get anyone down."  
The woman made a rejoicing sound that sounded somewhat like a high pitched "houw" before she cleared her throat and replied more calmly: "I mean: I am happy to take your offer."  
Chuckling Jack caught the Doctor, smiling satisfied over her reaction.  
"Us?" Jack suddenly got aware of something and glanced at the Doctor.  
"You asked if she wants to stay with 'us', not with 'me'...?"  
The Doctor shrugged.  
"Just an offer. If you're already bored of Cardiff you could take a little timeout."  
Jack beamed "then 'houw' for me too, Doctor." The men exchanged a grin.

"This brings us back to the whole name problem... I refuse to be called 'Miss' or 'Madam' any longer", the woman reminded them and looked prompting at the Doctor and Jack.  
"She's right, this isn't appropriate for the last Time Lady, fortunately the last Time _Lord_ will help, right?" Jack passed the question over to the Doctor who sighed.  
He seemed to think hard for some seconds and finally said "Mi'en?"  
Jack had never heard this name but the woman nodded thoughtfully.  
"Why?" She asked then.  
"Because of the boiler suite", the Doctor admitted slightly embarrassed and the Time Lady laughed. Jack gave the Doctor a confused look.  
"'Mi'en' means 'Blue' in Gallifreyan." The Doctor explained. Now Jack laughed too.  
"I told you I'm not..." the Doctor answered sheepishly.  
"it's great. 'Mi'en'... I like it" the woman interrupted him and the Doctor smiled, relived.

The patient blue box waited. Just like she often did. She waited for her Time Lord and the captain.  
The TARDIS liked Captain Jack. He tended to say naughty things, sometimes he annoyed the Doctor, but in the end he was a true friend and for this the TARDIS liked him.  
Jack had been there for the Doctor when Donna had left. The TARDIS missed Donna – a lot, but this was how it always was. The Doctor found someone, then his lost this someone again – it was a cycle and the TARDIS knew it hurt him, but she would be with him forever.  
She made sure he would be ok. So many times she had flown him to places he was needed at, or places where people waited, that he needed.  
This time was an exception. The ship located its medical bay and it was like a shudder ran through her gadgets.  
This _person_. She would _not_ help the Doctor.  
_"I hate her."_  
The TARDIS's cold buzz echoed in her empty halls, she hummed for no one but herself, using a frequency not even Time Lords could understand. The Doctor wasn't here anyway, but the TARDIS felt him approaching.  
And _her_.  
It wasn't only that this person was no Sarah Jane and no Donna. She was ill. A disease. And the TARDIS had been infected. Her Doctor had carried this plague right into her halls and now it was a part of their timeline.  
A part of the ship, the part that loved the Doctor and wanted to protect him, wanted to get rid of the person. It was the tiny part of the TARDIS that felt alive. It craved to cure itself from this illness. The major part of her knew she couldn't do a thing.  
The bacteria had crawled into their life; it had merged with it and couldn't be erased before it had fulfilled its purpose.  
That was ok. That was how time worked, but the trouble with this person was that her purpose was double-edged. The time-machine saw the pain this ill person brought about and it made her feel helpless. As helpless as a thing could feel, she reminded herself. For a moment she switched every light inside of her out. Blink. She switched them on again and the Doctor, Jack and the person returned to her.

"Are you sure you won't mind my presence?" This freezing voice asked the TARDIS' Doctor. The ship felt this person already poisoning her Time Lord.  
"Of course not."  
_"Oh wonderful, naive man."_  
"Just take a room you like. Usually the TARDIS supplies you with clothes and everything they need."  
_"I wouldn't bet on it."_  
"Great! Then I can finally get rid of this _thing_."  
While this person pointed at her boiler suit the Doctor opened the TARDIS' door. She softly hummed as her Time Lord entered her. Unfortunately Jack decided to defer to the person; otherwise the TARDIS would have enjoyed to lock her out.  
A sigh-like buzz escaped the ship.

One of the things the TARDIS enjoyed the most was vwroping through the vortex with the Doctor and many companions at the same time. They walked around in her. Thinking, laughing, tickling the ship with their moves. It was a wonderful feeling. Now the TARDIS couldn't enjoy the feeling – not as long as this vermin crawled around in her hallways and rooms.  
The blue box felt the Doctor gently working on her levers, he was chatting with Jack who softly leaned against one of the TARDIS' poles. But this person. She sneaked deeper into the ship, she was searching for a room.  
_"Good luck"_ the TARDIS decided huffed and moved all nice guest rooms far far away from this disgusting bug.  
The first door it opened leaded into a dusty storeroom. With a light move to the left the TARDIS made some dirty boxes from a shelf in this room fall down on this person.  
The second door leaded into the room the Doctor used to store away remnants of failed chemical experiments; remnants that were too dangerous to be dumped anywhere else. Just as to show the person that the TARDIS was serious about it sleeping there, she switched the light on as soon as it entered it.  
"Great", the person sighed annoyed and closed the door again. It took the TARDIS some strength not to buzz in laughter.  
_"I maybe can't get rid of you, but that doesn't mean I can't make sure your time here will be as unpleasant as possible."_

"Hah!" Mi'en jerked the wooden door open. It had taken her about two hours. Two solid hours! But finally she had found a room worth the name.  
By that time this TARDIS must have shown her every useless, dirty or even dangerous room she had. Closets, cellars, museums for weird plants – Mi'en had seen them all. It had taken her quite some time to figure that this ship was not broken and not daft, it was mocking her.  
As soon as Mi'en had understood that, she had walked deeper into the TARDIS to find the rooms the ship hid from her. Finally she had been able to open a door. It leaded into a very narrow room, it smelled stuffy but at least it was a bedroom.  
"Our compromise, huh?" she asked the ship and switched on the light. The room was really small, with nothing else but a tiny bed and a dusty cupboard inside, but Mi'en was far too exhausted to care. She had fought hard for a bed and a cupboard so she wouldn't risk losing them again.  
"Is there any chance you could move the room just slightly closer to the control room?" Mi'en asked the ship. As an answer the bare light bulb that was dangling from the ceiling exploded and left her in the dark.  
"I take that as a 'no'" Mi'en sighed. For a second she pondered if she should ask the Doctor how to handle this ship, but then she changed her mind. He had saved her, offered her medical help, searched possible relatives with her and now even granted her to stay with him. The last thing Mi'en wanted was to ask more of him.  
Carefully she opened the door to the hallway to let some light into the room. With this light she walked slowly over to the cupboard to search for something to get changed.  
"You can't be serious!" The Time Lady whined as she saw what the TARDIS offered her. The dusty dresses in the cupboard looked a lot like the clothes maidservants wore on Gallifrey... or maybe had worn?  
Mi'en shook her head to get rid of these sad thoughts and reached for one of the dresses. It was a knee-length one, striped in orange and a white belt was wrapped around the waistline.  
Growling to herself Mi'en put it on. She was sure she looked like a servant with this, but anything was better than the boiler suit... right?  
"May I serve the tea now, sir?" she asked sarcastically as she smoothed the skirt of the dress. She was sure the ship was doing this on purpose. Even the shoes she had given her matched the look of the dress and underlined the position the ship seemed to see her in.  
Determined not to let this darken her mood Mi'en left her room and walked all the way back to the control room.

Lost in thoughts, the Doctor scanned the map for a possible new destination. Jack had told him he would get himself some sleep.  
_"Travelling with you is straining, I better get as much sleep as I can"_, the captain had said and vanished. This was alright with the Doctor. He was used to breaks in which they were just flying through the vortex – his companions had always needed sleep.  
A sudden feeling of desperation washed over the Time Lord and he sat down on his seat. He buried his face in his hands and tried to figure why it had happened again.  
Donna was barely gone and he was already travelling with someone new. Captain Jack was no problem. He would accompany him for one, maybe two adventures and then he would leave again. But the Time Lady... Mi'en...  
She had no one she could turn to, no home and no memory. She would stay with him, travel with him and in the end vanish and the thought of it made him growl loudly in frustration and fear.  
Losing a human companion, a mate, was horrible, but another Time Lord? He wasn't sure if he would survive it.

"Ex-cuse me... are you alright?" a female voice asked shyly and the Doctor looked up.  
"Mi'en?" he wondered. It certainly was the same woman with the fringy hair he'd met before, but what for Rassilon's sake was she wearing?  
"Please, let's not talk about it" Mi'en said annoyed and gave the dress she was wearing a dismissive stroke.  
"No, it looks... nice", the Doctor tried to sooth her but Mi'en laughed dryly.  
"You're such a poor liar" she decided. Then her bugged look suddenly gave way to a worried one.  
"You're not feeling well?" she asked.  
"No, I'm all right."  
For a moment no one of them said anything then Mi'en made some steps over to him and replied: "No offence, but when you say you're all right, you sound just like when you said my dress is nice."  
"Maybe because it _is_ nice", the Doctor pointed out and Mi'en grinned about his half-hearted lie.  
"So, what makes a man, who feels all right, growl like this?"  
The Doctor avoided her look and replied: "Sorry Mi'en, but I don't think this is..."  
"...any of my business? I know, sorry. I just thought I should know when the person I will spent some time with now, feels unwell."  
The Doctor turned around to her and though her answer told him she'd respect his decision not to talk, she sat down opposite of him, ready to listen.  
"About the travelling", the Doctor began, not sure why he didn't stick to the silence instead.  
"I don't want you to get this wrong. I was serious when I offered you to come along, but... I am really not searching for a companion."  
The Doctor searched for a sign of disappointment on the Time Lady's face but found only confusion.  
"Companion?" she finally wondered.  
"Yes. I actually had some of them and it never ended well. They get into trouble and I can't always save them. That's why I would prefer that we just leave it at the travelling together."  
"But isn't that what companions do? Travel together?" Mi'en talked to him with curiosity, she seemed eager to understand him without showing the slightest bit of own emotion. She was neither offended nor pleased.  
"Yes, but I can't guarantee you won't get harmed during our journeys. I can be your lift, but that's it."  
Finally Mi'en seemed to understand. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and leaned back in her seat.  
"And that's everything I ask of you", she explained.  
"Huh?" the Doctor glanced at her. He hadn't expected this answer.  
"Everything I need is a lift. I'm a Time Lord, thus I want to see the galaxy. Nothing else."  
"...Ok, p-perfect", the Doctor nodded. It was this easy?  
"No, I am serious" now Mi'en seemed determined to make her point. "I am grateful for everything you did today, it was far more than I could have asked for, but I am not your ward. Ok?"  
"No! I wasn't talking about wards, I..."  
"But you made it sound like it", Mi'en contradicted him. "You former companions were no Time Lords, were they? You travelled with species unaware of everything out there. I am different, Doctor. I know what's waiting for me, I can watch out for myself. The thing I can't do on my own is travelling, because I lack a ship. That's your part. I want no bodyguard and no guide, just a chauffeur."  
"That's just what I wanted to say!" the Doctor tried to explain.  
"Then we should be fine" Mi'en smiled satisfied like a mother who'd finished talking to her difficult child and walked away from the control panel.  
"Yes, because that was what _I_ wanted to tell _you_!" The Doctor called after her.  
"Fine", she chirped and vanished into the hallway.  
"Yes, it _is_ fine!" Bewildered and annoyed the Doctor run both of his hands into his hair. How had she managed it, to make it sound like she was putting _him_ down?  
"She's going to cause trouble" the Doctor warned himself, but a tiny smile appeared on his face. Trouble was a part of travelling through the galaxy, he could deal with it.

_A/N: Just if you wonder: I nicked Mi'en's name from "Mi'en Kalarash" which can be translated as "Blue Fire" from the audio book "House of Blue Fire". SOURCE_


	4. No new companion!

Chapter 4: No new companion!

Captain Jack entered the TARDI's kitchen early the next morning. At least he believed it was early, one could never be sure onboard of this ship, but it felt like an early morning. In addition to Jack's feeling he found Mi'en standing at the cooker, eagerly stirring a beige, viscous liquid in a pan.  
"Making breakfast?" he asked gingerly, the smell that was emanating from the cooker reminded the captain more of an attempt in making your own fuel, but the ingredients Mi'en had placed on the table told Jack the content of the pan should be food. He saw eggs, milk, flour, for some reason chocolate chips...  
"You're making pancakes?" he added surprised and Mi'en turned around to him with a chuffed smile.  
"Yep, help yourself" she pointed at a plate with a pile of misshaped cakes.  
"Uhm" Jack started "actually I just wanted to stop eating sugar, so-"  
"They don't taste as bad as they look" Mi'en interrupted his poor excuses "believe me, I've had some already."  
Jack wasn't convinced, but didn't want to be rude. He fetched a plate and carefully placed some lumps on the porcelain, with a smacking sound they hit the plate and Jack eyed them nervous. He may was immortal, but that didn't mean he had to challenge his luck unnecessarily.  
Worried he glanced over to Mi'en who had turned to the cooker again, scattering chocolate chips over the dough. Plugging up some courage he picked a rather small piece of the _"pancake"_ up and started chewing it.

"Oh!" he exclaimed and Mi'en spun around.  
"What?"  
"I have never eaten anything in my life that looked and smelled this awfully, but tasted this fantastic!" Jack tried some more of it just to make sure; it was great.  
"Really? I wish I could do something about the smell or the look..."  
"Never mind them" Jack told her, getting some more of the pancakes "I'd probably eat a Slitheen if they tasted like this."  
Mi'en all but beamed "it's funny, isn't it? I don't know my name or anyone of my relatives but I know how to make pancakes. It came to me an hour ago or so, just thought I'd make some, to see if the receipt in my head works, you see?"  
"Oh, it works!" Jack praised, then he realised the sadness in her story, he had nearly overheard it because Mi'en herself seemed oblivious to it. She just kept baking, her voice not showing any kind of sorrow.  
"I'm glad at least you tried some."  
"The Doctor turned these down?" Jack wondered and Mi'en seemed thoughtful for a moment.  
"I don't think it was an excuse though, he didn't sound like you did."  
Jack smiled embarrassed "yeah, sorry about that. Maybe he was simply not hungry". He didn't want to tell Mi'en about it, but actually he suspected the absence of a certain ginger to be the cause of the Doctor's loss of appetite.  
"Tell you what, make those again but the next time use bananas; you will have to make sure he isn't going to bit your hand off." Jack and Mi'en chuckled at the thought as the Doctor suddenly poked his head into the kitchen.  
"Who bites a hand off?" he wondered and received just another laugh as an answer.  
"Have you finished breakfast, yet?" the Doctor then asked, ignoring their giggling "'cause we are there."  
Mi'en's face lightened up. "Great! I'll get my bag" and she scooted out of the kitchen.  
"Arrived where?" Jack wondered.  
"Pyth" the Doctor explained and Jack followed him into the control room. "It's a huge planet and I planned to come here since centuries; never found the time though. Also it can be dangerous, Pyth has some native clans and they don't necessarily like visitors – not to mention the plethora of dangerous plants... They have wonderful mines though, which I want to have a look at." He walked into the control room with Jack following him.  
_"No place you wanted to take Donna to, then"_ Jack thought but simply replied: "sounds interesting, I'm in."  
The Doctor nodded and went over to the screen on the TARDIS's, maybe to scan the surroundings. Jack well recognized how apathetic the Doctor did what usually made him behave like a kid in a toy store and the captain wished he could do anything about it.

"Ready!" a female voice announced and rushed past Jack and the Doctor over to the TARDIS's door. The Doctor glanced up to see Mi'en in yet another awkward dress hoping up and down in front of the door like a pup waiting for a walk.  
"I thought you wanted to get a bag?" the Doctor wondered and Mi'en raised a small pouch tied to her wrist.  
"Yeah, this one. I need it to carry the salt. Now, are you coming or not?" She all but hopped out of the ship.  
"Salt?" Jack wondered and Mi'en called back "salt works best to tease the plants."  
Jack and the Doctor followed the Time Lady out of the box and entered Pyth. The Doctor hadn't been here in ages and he'd almost forgotten how sticky the air could be.  
"Looks like a rainforest!" Jack announced and with a wipe of his hand over his forehead he added "and it feels like one, too."  
"The oxygen rate is a lot higher though" the Doctor explained "makes you feel less exhausted and allows the plants and bugs on this planet become multiple times bigger than anywhere else."  
"Exactly and that's what I'm here for" Mi'en told them. By now she had already examined the glade they had landed in and was about to enter the deep jungle. "They have the biggest Venus's flytraps in the universe and they produce the most delicious nectar."  
"They are carnivorous!" the Doctor warned and Mi'en raised an eyebrow.  
"Of course, they are flytraps, silly."  
"But they could also trap a Time Lord" the Doctor insisted and Mi'en shrugged.  
"Then I should be careful, shouldn't I?" When the Doctor opened his mouth again to object Mi'en added "I can take care of myself, remember, Doctor?"  
A moment past, then the Doctor replied: "right. Fine, but that means we won't come looking for you when you get yourself into trouble."  
"Alright, see you later" Mi'en scooted off and the Doctor called after her: "3 hours! If you're not here we'll leave!"  
The Time Lady raised her hand to show him she'd heard and then he was alone with Jack; he sighed.  
"What was that?" Jack wondered and the Doctor shrugged and turned to leave the glade into the other direction.  
"We will come to rescue her when she's not here in 3 hours, won't we?" he asked and followed the Doctor into the jungle.  
"Of course" he replied and they left to see the mines.

-

"You know, whenever I met you it seems like trouble clings to you?" Jack asked while he and the Doctor walked back through the jungle about 5 hours later.  
"It's not my fault!" he replied and climbed over another giant root. "Who'd thought they start worshipping a goddess living inside their mines in this century? I always thought they stick with atheism until next millennium."  
"Well, obviously they don't" Jack remarked unnecessarily and brushed a leave aside, finally they were back at the glade and the Doctor saw his TARDIS waiting for him. He also spotted a grumpy looking Time Lady sitting on her doorsill.  
"Where have you been?!" she asked angrily as she spotted the two of them. "We said 3 hours! I'm sitting here since ages and waited and I _hate_ waiting!" Mi'en brushed her fringe out of her face, the sticky air had soaked her hair and clothes which made her look even unhappier.  
"Sorry, we had a little tiff with the natives" the Doctor excused.  
"They arrested us" Jack explained and Mi'en's huffed look vanished.  
"Honestly?" she asked curiously "how was it? How could you escape?"  
"The Doctor soniced the lock of our cell, the real problem was getting past their guards. Obviously they train monstrous stag beetles to kill every person trying to get away." Jack told her and Mi'en listened, fascinated.  
"Oh that's unfair!" she exclaimed when Jack was done "nothing happened to me at all! I collected some jars of nectar and didn't even come close to waking one of the Venus's flytraps."  
"Be grateful for that" the Doctor told her and walked over to open the TARDIS, he then recognized the door wasn't locked.  
"Why didn't you wait inside?" he wondered and Mi'en looked annoyed.  
"She wouldn't let me in, I'm afraid I offended your ship."  
"How?"  
"Don't ask me" Mi'en replied and the three of them went back into the blue box. "Never mind, everything I want is a shower."  
"Sounds wonderful" Jack answered smugly.  
"Alone." Mi'en explained and vanished in the depth of the TARDIS.

Jack chuckled "she's not bad" he turned toward the Doctor.  
"She is pretty careless" he replied and made sure to manoeuvre the TARDIS safely into the vortex before heading for his own shower.  
"So are we" Jack answered and somewhat lower he added "next time she should come along."  
The Doctor threw a look at the captain, silently asking him what he wanted to say with that but Jack just shrugged. "You can't grieve forever, you found another Time Lord, can't you be happy about that? Not even a bit?"  
"I wonder who she is" the Doctor said, carefully ignoring Jack's words. "They are all gone... how is it she's here?"  
"Maybe she could escape and hid ever since?" Jack mused and then "is there no way you could find out? Run a DNA test or anything?"  
"I could, but the result could only be compared to other samples I already have..."  
"So in the end we could only tell she's neither you nor me, right?" Jack asked.  
"Right."  
"Ok, forget this then." With a shrug Jack left the control room, too. In the end it didn't matter to him who she had been. To Jack she was just another Time Lord, but to the Doctor...  
Who knew who she was? Did they know each other? If she was alive, maybe others could be, too? In the end the Doctor gave up the pondering. Right now he could do nothing to find out but hope Mi'en would remember soon.

-

The Doctor turned off the shower and stepped in front of the sink to brush his teeth. A tired looking man glanced out of the mirror. His last shave was weeks ago and even though Time Lords grew beards quite slowly, in comparison to other species, a five o'clock shadow was clearly visible on his face. The Doctor spat out the rest of foam and stored his toothbrush away, taking care of his appearance had been no task he considered important these days, so he was not bothering to get rid of the beard or do anything about his hair when he left the bathroom to get changed.  
He suppressed a yawn; his last nap was even longer ago than a shave, but he put on a freshly washed suit (thanks to the TARDIS for that) instead of his pajamas. The last thing he wanted was to fall asleep right now. The Doctor avoided looking at his bed just like it was a dreadful enemy and left his room.  
He knew he couldn't avoid sleep forever, but his nightmares had become that haunting that he would fight for any night he could get without them.

The Doctor entered the control room, feeling uneasy about another night like this when he spotted that the TARDIS's door was wide open. They were floating somewhere in the Isop Galaxy and Mi'en sat at the doorstep, her legs dangling out and she seemed unaware of the Doctor's presence.  
For a second he wondered if he should simply leave. He didn't care if he spent the next hours in front of the screens or in the library, but something made him walk over to Mi'en and sit down next to her. If someone had asked him he'd said he didn't want to be rude and ignore her, but the truth was that something about her reminded him about his own feelings after learning that Gallifrey was lost and he would have done everything to have someone to talk back then. Not about this issue, anything but this to be exact, but just someone to chat with.

"You're still awake?" Mi'en wondered with some sort of calmness in her voice that made the Doctor wonder if she had really not known he was there.  
"Yeah" he replied "so are you."  
"Right, I just thought you looked tired today." Mi'en gave him a look like she could say something more, but decided to keep it a secret.  
"I've been arrested, that's always exhausting." He told her merely and earned a grin.  
"_'Always'_? So this happens to you more often?" she wanted to know and now he smiled, too.  
"Now and then" he said and they shared a moment of silent amusement before Mi'en asked, softer this time: "if I'd ask you if I could come along next time… would you mind?"  
"No…" the Doctor told her with a heavy silence following his words that seemed to worry Mi'en, so he added: "It's just that if you'd come along today, you would have been arrested."  
"So? It would have been an adventure and not just a day I wasted with collection nectar."  
"I thought this was what you wanted when you asked if we could go to Pyth?!" the Doctor frowned and recognized an impish smile on her face.  
"I wanted to see the giant Venus's flytraps" she admitted "you can buy this nectar everywhere, but I hoped one of them would wake up, or I could at least see one eating a fly, but they were just sleeping."  
"Well then, you can come along if you want" he told her and saw her beaming.  
"Thanks."  
The Doctor shrugged "it could come in handy; two Time Lords I mean."  
A trace of something scurried over Mi'en's face, but before the Doctor could decide what emotion it had been it was gone.  
He got up and just wanted to say good-bye for this night when Mi'en called after him: "Doctor?"  
He turned around to her and saw that she was still sitting with the back to the control panel, so he couldn't see her face.  
"What kind of person do you think I am?" she asked and the tone of her voice was difficult to assess.  
"Because it can't be a good one, can it?"  
"Why do you say that?" he wondered and wished she'd turn around so he could at least make out if she was feeling sad about this or not.  
"How many good people do you know that have no one missing them?" she answered with another question and finally it dawned on the Doctor.  
"None" he told her truthfully and she nodded. Slowly he sat back down next to her and to his surprise her eyes were glistening with unshed tears.  
"But I could tell you about countless good people who don't know that someone's missing them."  
Mi'en looked at him with a doubtful look and he explained: "people forget but people aren't forgotten. Just because no one went to the police for you doesn't mean there's no one in the universe or even on earth who isn't wondering where you are. Right now you don't even know their names but they could be missing you with everything they are." His voice trembled while talking to her and his throat felt oddly tight.  
"We're not talking about me, right now, are we?" Mi'en asked and the Doctor shook his head, avoiding looking at her.  
"Thanks anyway" she whispered and wiped her hand over her eyes. A long time of silence followed her words and afterwards no one spoke about forgotten friends. They talked about Pyth and about the Isop Galaxy and the night slowly went by. In next to no time Jack joined them to get to their next planet.


	5. Forgotten abilities

_**Chapter 5: Forgotten abilities**_

"I mean, they had us tied up and were about to push us down their volcano and what did I ask them?" the Doctor asked rhetorically and Mi'en and he answered in synch: "What's is this rope made of?"  
"Exactly" he chuckled and Mi'en grinned, drawing her knees closer to her chest. It had become a habit of theirs to spend the nights in the control room. They never agreed to meet there, but both knew they could come there and talk, so they came there - every night.  
The Doctor leaned at the panel and Mi'en curled up on his seat. She could be naive and now and then she would frown when the Doctor was talking about emotions being the reason for certain behaviour, but except from this it surprised him how smoothly they understood each other. Mi'en was never confused or bewildered by his natural curiosity; she even seemed to share it. One night when he'd proudly shown her one of his engine-fragments from his collection and asked her what she thought this is, she eyed it over for some moments and then simply ran her tongue over the rusty metal to tell him the exact year and origin.

As much as the Doctor found reassurance in their meetings, he still understood that they were simply chatting. They talked about his former adventures, Jack, the latest trick the TARDIs played on Mi'en or, recently, the adventures they had shared. Other issues, those that would reach deeper had yet been ignored. Mi'en's past, for a start; Gallifrey, both gave wide berth to that one and the Doctor's companions.  
At least he had thought so until Mi'en remarked: "And I bet Donna would have beaten you silly for that, if she hadn't been tied up." The Doctor looked up at Mi'en's nonchalant comment.  
"Yeah, I thought so, too…" he said. How did she know this? Had he really talked that much about Donna that Mi'en could already assess her character? Actually the Doctor had thought he'd spoken as often about Donna as about any other of his companions… But now that he thought about the stories he'd told Mi'en it must appear to her like he'd never had someone else but Donna – and in a way he hadn't, but she couldn't know that.

"Doctor?!" her voice snapped the Doctor out of his thoughts and he understood that Mi'en had been calling him several times now.  
"Sorry, what?" he nearly jumped up when he recognized that Mi'en had walked over to him and stood just a couple of inches away from him.  
"I said that I was tired, I'll go to bed."  
"Oh" he felt surprised about how much this disappointed him; the night was still young and he wasn't exactly sure what to do with himself when Mi'en wasn't around to talk away the silence between the days.  
"Well, of course, go right ahead."  
"What about you?" she asked curiously, not taking a single step away from him so he could all but see the TARDIS's monitors reflecting in her eyes.  
"Me?"  
"Yes, you" she replied "in all the time I've been here with you, you haven't slept once, you look tired."  
"I'm alright, I still have a lot of work to get over with" he waved his hand at the control panel. He was well aware that Mi'en didn't buy his excuses but this was another of the issues they avoided; him pretending he was alright.  
"Ok, good night then" she turned away. Mi'en always seemed to respect his decision to keep some things a secret, the Doctor believed he could tell her, he knew who she was but wouldn't let her know for good and she wouldn't bat an eye; but when he lied… these were the only moments in which she seemed hurt.  
The Doctor watched Mi'en leave into the corridors and head for her own room without calling her back. He knew this was wrong. He had made her his companion, but she only was his friend here in the control room - his friend to kill the silence in the darkness between the days, but when they left the TARDIS she was just another Time Lord. The Doctor wasn't sure if this was far more or far less than he'd given any other of his companions.

Mi'en entered the control room. Something about it seemed different than before when she'd been here with the Doctor. The monitors were flickering in a greenish light and dipped the whole room in their wicked light, causing Mi'en's shadow to move most un-shadowlike.  
It took her some moments to realize her shadow was more than her dark frame on the wall; it was another person there with her. She backed off as the man walked out of the darkness and into the light of the monitors.  
"Who are you?" she asked suspecting. The man was about as tall as the Doctor, he was blond though and his dark eyes lacked all of the Doctor's warmth.  
"I'm no-one, a ghost maybe" he replied and walked through the control room like the place belonged to him and just when Mi'en was about to look about for the Doctor she realized: "This is a dream, is it not?"  
"Clever girl" the blond man praised in a tone one would use to praise a child that understood why 1+1 was 2. Mi'en felt eased though, if this was a dream than she had no need to worry why this stranger was in the TARDIS and why the ship felt suddenly so much friendlier than it usually did.  
Now that this was cleared up Mi'en eyed the man over. At least this was her dream! Why did her subconscious chose him and this scenery? She got the feeling to know this man from somewhere and a part of her, deep down, wanted to make him stay and never leave her.

Finally he recognized her staring and looked up from his work on the control panel; it seemed like her dream made the blond man continue where the Doctor had stopped. He smirked smugly, his eyes all but flooded with pride, and when he asked "what's this look for?", Mi'en was sure he knew well what it was for.  
"Nothing, just… looking" she replied and the look on the man's face darkened. It was odd but the disdain playing about his features suited him even better.  
"Wow, the Doctor's companion since some weeks and already a fully grown liar."  
Mi'en looked away but knew that he was right. Didn't she hate all this lying? She took a breath in and met the blond man's eyes again, with as much stubbornness as she could plug up.  
"You're pretty handsome, that for I looked at you, but don't tell me you don't know that yourself; you don't seem to be the type whose unaware of his own features."  
The man smiled pleased "right" he seemed to enjoy this conversation massively and slowly Mi'en got the feeling he knew something she didn't.  
"It's good to hear it from you, however." The man continued and added "and it's good to see you, I was slightly worried how you'd look like… You turned out very nicely, though."  
Mi'en had no time to answer since the man was suddenly standing in front of her to look her over. It was one of these cuts she'd have wondered about in real life but in a dream it was just the way things were. So right now her attention was with the blond man scanning her with his eyes.  
"Wonderful black hair, gorgeous curves if I dare say it… meh; pretty small but we'll get used to this." Mi'en couldn't tell why the man sounded this narcissistic while complimenting her, but it seemed obvious that he was flattering himself for what he saw. Not that she minded his compliments.  
"Why are you here?" Mi'en asked nervously.  
"I don't know, I think a part of you remembers me and tries to let you know."  
"Then who are you?! You are you to me?" Mi'en grabbed the man's wrist, scared he would vanish and this piece of her past would slip out of reach but he made no attempts to move away. Instead he brought his face very close to hers.  
"I am dead" the man replied and Mi'en shuddered under the feeling of his breath against her face "in your sleep however, I am your friend if you need one but most importantly I'm here to teach."  
Mi'en looked into his eyes and tried to remember hardly who he was to her but all that came to her mind was 'he's dead'.  
"I teach myself, I don't need anyone else" she replied stubbornly, trying to get something of her own pride back. The blond smiled this knowing smile again.  
"Exactly."  
Mi'en didn't understand that, but she didn't let go of the man either. She didn't want to admit it but a friend was just what she needed right now. Someone she could talk to about things she couldn't talk to with Jack or the Doctor.

Jack and the Doctor took cover behind a crumbling pillar. The Doctor felt a rush of heat as a deadly ray stroke the iron wall just inches away from his ear. The refuse-ship around them growled and shuddered on its way down to the planet beyond. Yet it was abandoned, but the Doctor knew if they wouldn't stabilise the ship anytime soon it would destroy the future home of countless unborn species.  
"Jack, cover me!" he called, throwing a short glance past the pillar to see them approaching.  
Jack got up, shooting at them though he and the Doctor knew it wouldn't help, but he distracted these things so the Doctor could rush from the one pillar to the next and start working on the door. He needed to be fast now.

They had gotten a distress call from this refuse-ship and he, Jack and Mi'en had shown up just in time to see the bigger part of the crew had been killed by their invaders. In all this turmoil no-one seemed to bother about the ship slowly being pulled into the orbit of the planet below. Instead the captain and the rest of the crew had locked themselves up in some kind of panic room and left the fighting and rescuing to the Doctor and the others.  
Right now the Time Lord tried to force a way into the locked cockpit while Jack was trying his best to buy him more time. Mi'en had vanished, she'd called something about finding the key and then she was gone.

The Doctor frantically shuffled through the options of his screwdriver but this door was a persistent one. He heard the captain cursing behind him and seconds later he appeared at his side. His change of position was followed by a couple of laser-beams hitting the ceiling and the mechanic voices shouting "EXTERMINATE!"  
"We better hurry up" Jack warned unnecessarily.  
"I know! If just the crew had made their shields half as save as this door they'd still be alive!" the Doctor replied and hit the sonic a few times against his palm before he went on to deal with the lock.  
Why did he always have to stumble across the Daleks sooner or later?! How many refuse-ships were out there that still had some 'broken' Daleks onboard, just waking up before being dumped into the waste press?  
The fact that Jack behind the Doctor rose his weapon, told him the Daleks had found them and if not the next option of the sonic would pick this lock they'd be dead.  
A clicking cut through the shouting and the sound of shots and without wasting any time with unbelieving amazement, the Doctor pushed the door open, pulled the captain in behind him and banged the door shot.  
"This was close" Jack sighed "good job though, Doctor."  
"That wasn't me" he told the captain and both men looked at the complacent Mi'en, letting a key ring swirl around her finger.  
"How?" Jack asked her amazed and Mi'en shrugged.  
"I asked the captain, he was glad to help me."  
"'Glad to help'?" the Doctor frowned "when we arrived he wanted to use us as a distraction for the Daleks and now he simply gives you the key?"  
Mi'en's eyes sparkled devious "I can be pretty persuasive if I need to be" she remarked and the sound of more shots hitting the door ended their conversation.  
The rest of their task was simple; the Doctor easily got into the steering mechanism and brought the ship back on course. Then, with a wicked smirk, he switched a lever and the angry 'exterminate!'-calls stopped.  
"What did you do?" Mi'en asked and he pointed at the lever.  
"Started the magnet of the press, this should hold them until we've reached our destination and a life sentence for the three of them."  
Somehow the bitterness he felt for these creatures must have resonated in his voice because Mi'en caught his look and asked: "What did they do that you don't even consider them to have a good reason for their doing?"  
"Because I know them" he told her. "Daleks, there is nothing, not even the tiniest bit, good in them."  
"What did they do?" Mi'en wanted to know and for a moment he considered not to tell her. Maybe it wouldn't do her any good, but on the other hand he wanted her to know them. He wanted to give her an image to hate when thinking about Gallifrey and why it was lost.  
"Timewar, remember?" he simply mumbled and Mi'en's jar dropped.  
"No! These cans?!"  
He affirmed but the Time Lady seemed seriously upset.  
"I need to see them" she finally told them "I need to look at them and-" she didn't complete the sentence, she simply rushed out of the cockpit.  
"We should follow her" Jack said worried and the Doctor nodded.  
"I will. Could you have a look after the crew?"  
The Doctor saw that Jack wanted to object but then he nodded and left. This was something the Doctor needed to do with Mi'en.  
He left for the room with the press.

Mi'en glared down at the three aliens in the waste press. They were shaking their telescopes but the magnet kept them in place, unimpressed by their hateful shouts and threats. It would have looked funny, nearly cute, if Mi'en had had any reason not to believe what the Doctor had said.  
Finally one of the three spotted the Time Lady and cried: "the Doctor's companion! Set us free! Obey!"  
"Over my dead body" Mi'en spat throwing her most hating glare at the creatures. The mere thought of them getting a fair trial and a long life in prison made her sick.  
"We agree, set us free and you will be exterminated!" one of them replied and Mi'en clenched her fists in rage and hatred. She had never experienced this feeling before and wasn't sure what to do, but she knew what she _wanted_ to do.  
Her eyes jumped to the button on the wall that would start the press' rolls. Did these monsters, too, have death cries? Her hands carefully stroked over the button.  
"Don't." Mi'en glanced up, on a platform above the press, the Doctor looked down on her with a unreadable look.  
"Why not?" she asked. She really wanted to know a single reason why she shouldn't kill them.  
"Because it wouldn't help anyone" he said. "Out there are many of them… three less wouldn't solve the problem. They will be locked up and won't ever harm anyone again."  
Fury crawled up her throat and seemed to choke her. 'Wouldn't help anyone'?! It certainly would help her! Seeing these creature wriggle in agony and begging for mercy would calm the voracious heat of anger inside of her.  
"It wouldn't harm anyone if I kill them though" she replied and hoped for a sign of agreement on the Doctor's face.  
"Don't do it. I see why you want to, really I do, but in the end killing for revenge's sake just eats you up." They locked eyes and then he said, softer: "Wait there, I'll come and get you." With these words he vanished and Mi'en felt a jet of gratefulness cutting through the mere hatred inside of her.  
He'd get her because he knew she wasn't able to leave them alive, not when revenge was so very close under her hand.  
"Why does she obey now?" a Dalek snarled if a mechanic voice could snarl. "The Doctor says and she follows."  
"Shut up" Mi'en growled, her voice trembling.  
"She has so much hatred in her eyes!" another Dalek said. "Hatred and madness and strength!"  
"Shut up!" she shouted this time.  
"She's more a Dalek than a Time Lord!"  
Mi'en's hearts were pulsing in her ears. Drum-drum, drum-drum, while the three of them chorused: "Hail to the Dalek among the Time Lo-"  
The rest of their words were drowned in the screeching of metal against metal, now she still couldn't tell if they had death cries or not.  
"What did you do?" the Doctor pulled her away from the control panel, surprising her with his softness but she didn't reply, she simply let him lead her away from there. Here head still pounding the drum-drum, drum-drum.

Jack sat at the table in the TARDIS's kitchen. Opposite of him the Doctor focused on his cup of tea like he tried to avoid talking to him even though he had been the one who asked Jack to have a word with him. Mi'en had left for bed as soon as they were back in the TARDIS and the Doctor had until now only informed Jack about what happened in the press room. Further questions of Jack about why she did it were answered with a heavy shrug.  
"Well, you can't blame her, can you?" Jack said to dissolve the silence. "She just learned about what they did and that's all so new for her."  
"Daleks bring out the worst in all of us" the Doctor told him, thoughtfully stirring in his tea "that's not what I'm worried about..."  
"What then?" Jack wanted to know.  
"The way she watched them die..." the Doctor began slowly, like he was just seeing her in his mind. "This was no person trying revenge and murder for the first time."  
"You want to say she's done that before?!" Jack asked, slightly louder than he'd wanted.  
"You sound surprised" the Doctor raised an eyebrow at him "we don't really know her. She could have done anything before she came here."  
"Yeah, it's just..." whenever Jack was with Mi'en she appeared to be so innocent; naive and cheeky and just like a child. Somehow the captain had decided that this was her, since her memory was just weeks old.  
"Maybe she just doesn't understand why it's wrong" he mused.  
"Maybe..." the Doctor mumbled like he wanted to add _"but I don't think so"_ but simply forgot to say it out loud.  
The two men parted soon after and Jack kept wondering if her unawareness about morals meant she really was naive or if it meant morals had been something for her past self that wasn't important enough to be remembered.


End file.
